Speckled Hen Final Gravity

[yeasty]

My first AG has been in the FV for 7 days and has been at 1.018 for 2 days. The Speckled hen recipe that I took off this site estimates a final gravity of 1.009.
As my OG was 1.058 I am happy with the alcohol content but will this high FG result in a sweeter beer? Do you think this is an acceptable FG? I used S-04 yeast and the recipe didn't state a yeast so this might explain the difference.

It smells great and I can't wait to try it. Done the Gail Porter recipe today which went very smoothly. Stocking up nicely for Christmas!

[Whorst]

Regarding sweetness, you'll end up with more residual sugar, which will make it a sweet and heavy beer. I would probably pitch some Nottingham to finish it off.

[MightyMouth]

I would expect a 1058 OG to reach about 1015 FG so its not far off. It might be very slightly sweeter than expected but not by much.

[Russ]

Hi Yeasty

By coincidence I too have a Speckled Hen (AG #2) that I made last Saturday (Wheeler's recipe) I adjusted my grain bill to work on the 79% efficiency (Using Wheelers Beer Engine) I got on my first all grain brew (Previous weekend's work). Doing this I hit the target OG of 1050 and brew length bang on. I too used S04. It's reading 1010 today and I still have a little airlock activity so I expect to hit 1009.

May be worth rousing the yeast ? sounds like it's stuck for some reason to me

Let me know how yours turns out. be intresting to compare notes.

Cheers

Russ

[Whorst]

I suppose it's up to personal taste. I like to see it finish between 1.010 and 1.012, but I'm sorta of hophead.

[MightyMouth]

It would be quite hard to get a 1058 OG beer that low. A 1058 beer which gets to 1012 will be at 80% attenuation and if it gets to 1010 it will be 82% both of which are at the very top of your average attenuation scale and would leave the beer a bit thin. I would expect somewhere in the region of 75% on most beers of this strength which would be right bewteen 1014-1015 FG.

[jubby]

My last brew was Sarah Hughes which stopped fermenting at 1.018 (OG, 1056) after 10 days in the FV. I pitched a re-hydrated S-04, but it did not change over the next couple of days.

I think my problem was that I used a yeast starter that I cultivated from the krausen of a previous brew which probably wasn't big enough. To compensate for the high finishing gravity, I only used 20g of conditioning sugar in the barrel. Four weeks later, the beer is very good, slightly sweet but balanced with 35 IBU. It is possible that the S-04 was still working whilst in the barrel, as i kept it in the warm for a couple of weeks before putting it in my garage to condition.

[yeasty]

Thanks for the replies guys. what's interesting here is that I did 2 of the same brews, 1 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday. The plan was to make slight adjustments to each brew and see what the difference was. I dry hopped one and added the same hops after boil to the other. I put the Sunday brew in secondary FV 2 days later and left Saturdays alone. They both read the 1.018 today and both had the same 1.058 OG.

The only thing that I can think of that could effect the brew is the wife was ill on Thursday and had the heating on all day. When I got home I noticed the FV's were at about 24'. I quickly moved them but could this have killed the yeast?

[coatesg]

24C should be fine (but on the high end) for S-04 - maybe worth trying to give it a rouse with a sanitised spoon to see if it'll drop a bit further. You didn't say what temperature you mashed at - if you mashed high, then you may not get it quite down to 75% attenuation.

OSH originally had an SG of 1050 (it was first brewed to celebrate 50 years of the MG factory in Abingdon - the 1050 gravity was chosen because of this ) - the FG would have been 1012ish giving the original 5%ABV (before Greene KIng decided to knacker it further bringing it down to 4.5% ).

I'd give it another fair few days after rousing to see if it drop a bit further.

[yeasty]

I'll give it a rouse tonight and leave it until 10 days. I'll keep you posted.